Changes afoot

A lot has happened since our last post. We had a freeze that went down into the upper 20's and killed a bunch of our tropical fruit that was doing so well. The vegetables made it through alright. Many of our tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the greenhouse burnt up from the freeze. Our loquats that were ripening all froze off. The lime tree has dropped all the flowers that were just appearing as well as the leaves. I have planted another round of cool season plants to try and extend the season. We will see what happens.

Our seed orders have arrived and I have begun planting for this season. I also planted beets and more carrots in the plots.

I might have a new job with the Hillsborough county extension service. It is an environmental production horticulture agent. So I would be a University of Florida off-campus faculty. Go Gator Nation!

I have a new page on local harvest website. http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M26660 You can check us out there if you are local.

I also went to a Southwest Florida small farm network conference in Arcadia. that was interesting. I am now beginning to think more holistically about my farm and not so much as different segments (a plant nursery, citrus, and organic veggies) but just as a small farm. I am glad I went. I will explain more about this in upcoming posts.

I will add more from Dr. Treadwell from her favorite books to read.

Caldwell, Brian; Emily Rosen, Eric Sideman, Anthony Sheldon and Christine Smart. Resource guide for organic insect and disease management. 2005. 169 pages. Available for free at: http://www.nyaes.cornell.edu/pp/resourceguide/index.php

Coleman, Elliot. 1995. The new organic grower: A master’s manual of tools and techniques for the home and market gardener. 340 pages. Chelsea Green Publishing Co. $24.95 www.chelseagreen.com

Ellis, B. and Fern Bradley (Eds.). 1996. The organic gardener’s handbook of natural insect and disease control: A problem solving guide to keeping your garden and yard healthy without chemicals. 534 pages. Rodale Press. Emmaus, PA.

Grubringer, Vernon. 1999. Sustainable vegetable production from start-up to market. 280 pages. Natural Resource, Agriculture and Engineering Service. Cornell Cooperative Extension. 152 Riley-Robb Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-5701; phone 607-255-7654; fax 607-254-8770. www.nraes.org

Gershuny, Grace and Joe Smillie. 1995. The soul of soil: A guide to ecological soil management. 4th ed. 158 pages. AgAccess, Davis, CA. Available for about $10.00 at http://www.agribooks.com

Jeavons, John. 1974. How to grow more vegetables and fruits, nuts, berries, grains and other crops than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine. 268 pages. Ten Speed Press. Berkeley CA. www.tenspeed.com

Peet, Mary. 1996. Sustainable practices for vegetable production in the south. 174 pages. Focus Publishing, R. Pullins Co. Newburyport, MA. Available online at: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/sustainable/peet/index.html

SARE’s practical guides to sustainable farming. Six books in the series, all available online for free, or mail order for less than $25.00 each at: http://www.sare.org/publications/handbooks.htm

The New Farmer’s Market: Farm Fresh Ideas for Producers, Managers and Communities. 2001. 272 pages.

Building a sustainable business: A guide to developing a business plans for farms and rural business. 2003. 280 pages.

Building soils for better crops, 2nd Ed. 2000. 240 pages.

Managing cover crops profitably, 2nd Edition. 2001. 212 pages.

Manage insects on your farm: A guide to ecological strategies. 2005. 128 pages.

Steel in the field: A farmer’s guide to weed management tools. 2001. 128 pages.

Stephens, James. 2003. Manual of minor vegetables. Florida Cooperative Extension Service. UF-IFAS. 123 pages. $7.00. Available from the IFAS Extension bookstore: http://ifasbooks.ufl.edu/merchant2/merchant.mv

University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Specialty crops and minor crops handbook. 1998. 2nd ed. 184 pages. $35.00. Available at: http://www.sfc.ucdavis.edu/docs/speccrop.html

Go Gator Nation!

I visited my Alma mater last week as part of a job interview for Hillsborough county environmental horticulture extension agent. Which is an off-campus faculty member for UF. It is also nice to get another national championship title and have our star quarterback returning next year! I love to go to the Univ. of FL to see what has changed. I got to interview with some of the professors that taught me. It was a good experience. I also visited the student organic gardens next to Lake Alice and the Bat House. I arrived at the gardens at about 7:30 am and it was about 35 degrees F. But is was really nice to see what is growing out there. I saw some beautiful broccoli, cabbage, and a giant red mustard. I am going to try to grow some of those things at my farm. I also was able to break a piece of sugarcane off to grow out at my farm. I also picked some asparagus seeds and some dried luffa seeds. I will just play with them at the farm to see how they do. I also caught up with some advisers and I was introduced to a new professor, Dr. Danielle Treadwell. She spent a good while with me discussing organic vegetables and sustainability which is her area of expertise. I got some good ideas from her and a good bit of information which I will add to the next few posts just to spread it out.

I have ordered our seeds from Johhny's and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I am already looking forward to try out some new things and some new cultivars. I have also planted our some of our red onions and red potatoes this week. I have also planted some more mustard, kale, romaine lettuce (just to use up the seeds), and some butterhead lettuce.

This is a list of National resources from Dr. Treadwell of the University of Florida:

AFSIC. Alternative Farming Systems Information Center. http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/
The sustainable agriculture component of the National Agriculture Library.

ATTRA .(Formerly Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas and now known as the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service) website: http://www.attra.org/
This site is sponsored by the USDA, and contains a wealth of information on sustainable agriculture, including organic production. Visit the pest management database (see below)

IFOAM International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. http://www.ifoam.org/
The premier international body of organic agriculture professionals. They publish an annual report on global organic statistics and provide guidance to certifying agencies world-wide.

National Organic Program. http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexIE.htm
This site has information for consumers and growers on organic production in the US, including a complete copy of the standards.

NCAT Organic Crops Workbook. http://www.blogger.com/TALKS_2007/GardensGroves_BrevardCo_March31_07/www.attra.ncat.org
In collaboration with ATTRA, a very helpful workbook that guides producers through the process of certification, including creating an organic system plan for your operation.

OFRF Organic Farming Research Foundation http://www.ofrf.org/
From California, this non-profit organization serves the national organic community by providing research updates and grower survey results. They also offer small grants to growers for on-farm research projects.

SARE Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education http://www.sare.org/
SARE is a federally-funded program administered regionally in the U.S. The educational outreach component of SARE is SAN (Sustainable Agriculture Network). They have several online books that are very popular (see below)

Soil Quality Institute. http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/soil_quality/what_is/sqiinfo.html This website features information sheets on a variety of soil quality topics from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)

Getting Ready!

We are making preparations for the next crop of summer vegetables. We pretty much keep growing right through fall into late summer. But I like to think of having two seasons. A winter and a summer crop. We will be planting peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, carrots, some Chinese vegetables, sweet potatoes, and regular potatoes. We will be trying a few odds and ends to see what might work well here. I need to make a few seed orders. We will also try out some southern peas this year. Our onions are almost ready and we will plant them with the red potatoes that Jenn bought at the store. I will wait a few days until the moon phase changes to a waning moon before I plant them.

I ate the first loquat (Japanese plum) today. The plants are about three years old. I planted them when Anna was born to celebrate her birth. This is the first crop on them. I think I was a little to excited to see the loquat yellow. I should have waited another few days before I picked it. It was a bit sour. I am amazed at how fragrant the inflorescence are. There are quite a few flowers on the tree. There was an uneven bloom this year due to the temperature. So we have fruit that is almost ripe and we have flowers just opening. The trees are evergreen and virtually pest free. The fruits are yellowy orange, sweet and have a few seeds in the center. That is how these trees were started. You can eat the skin but need to spit out the seeds.

The loquat tree

The loquat flowers

The unripe fruit and leaves of the loquat.